medivo:
oh good lord, the k’daai are amazing XD
the army that won best in faction had a destroyer, iron demon and 6 fireborn, and was all about the smash, but the 8 I took practically carried me 
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game one, they chewed through 2 units of dark elf elite infantry until i was an idiot and pushed my hobgoblin chaff into the fight… the combat res from murdered hobs caused their demise, and ultimatley me the game… (lesson learned, dont feed hobs to people for no reason)
game 2 was against a VC army with kemmler, krell and a giant block of wights (graveguard?) the fireborn charged and shredded 50+ zombies in two rounds of combat (after he ressed some into the unit) and got a flank charge onto the graveguard, who had been stalled to the front by the warriors after eating my BC unit (krell is scary) and with a rear charge from the prophet on the same turn meant that they had 15+ combat res to soak on 3 wights and the 2 characters.
game 3 vs dwarf funline (double cannon, xbow blocks and 3 bolt throwers) lost my prophet and mount before my turn one, raced forwards. tauruk died next, from combined cannon/bolt thrower fire as did his unit, turn three the fireborn came under fire, but after 2 cannons projectiles bounced (one on a 2++ the other on a 4++) he switched to shooting the GW bsb block, the fireborn didnt lose any wounds from burning out and smashed into his unit of miners, which broke after a single round, due to re-rolling to wound and wards, vs flames, attacks and stomps making his leadership awful, and then the warriors and k’daai rolled up most of what was left. absolute bloodbath, but due to the 700pt general and ~400pts of centaurs+hobs it came out as a 15-5 (couldnt catch all the gyros)
game 4 was combat dwarfs, (cannon, organ gun, stone thrower, big longbeards, big hammererbunker , 10-15 firedrakes, xbows and copters). I got the drop on the dwarfs, sunning off half the hammerers, a runesmith and the stone thrower. I was an idiot and blocked a charge lane for my centaurs into his x-bows, but the tauruk had just enough space to fly oout the unit and into the organ gun, the taurus died, but the sorcerer lived, and after the cataurs presued the xbows off the board, i threw the fireborn and warriors into the firedrakes, which had strayed too far from the combat blocks… i then marched my centaurs 14" away from the combat blocks (but the tauruk got cannoned off last turn) and left the hammerers and longbeard alone for a 10-10 draw (all my units were too small at that point to take on 2 untis of GW dwarfs + 3-4 characters so i hid XD)
Game 5, was O+G, great game, really close… i was scared of the mangler squig(s) and fanatics, so held back, he bunkerted behind terrain and threw doom divers at me. I nearly took out the wyvern lord (not general) but after the mount died he was whisked away to safety by the hand of gork 
highlights of the game were soulblighting off the two flaming ward monstrous spiders, and the deathmatch between the bale taurus and an arachnarok, which left my lord once again wandering the battlefield at 3" a turn, miles from my warrior block oh and the fireborn engaged in a 4-turn (8 round) grind fest with a massive squig herd (10x4 or similar) the result was a single fireborn, and a tiny squigslposion, which then somehow survived two fanatics, and two direct doom diver hits to secure me the draw XD
game 6 was against one of my local players who is gonna be in the team with me. He plays high elves (which is my second army) it was a massacare, an early spiritleech killed off his bsb, I shoved everything forwards, as bolts bounce off of the fireborn (and he had 2 throwers and a million sisters). The silver helms failed their charge on a 1,1,2 or something equally bad, and I get off a soulblight on the swordsmasters, he charged the fireborn with the SM’s and scroll his dispel magic attempt, everything was wounding on 2’s, and the re-rolls to wound vs non magic left him cold, with general and bsb dead, as well as his main combat units dead (I had charged the silver helms after their failed charge) he conceeded the 20-0.
Granted, it sometimes felt like the fireborn couldn’t fail their T test, 6 games 5 tests each= 3-4 failures. it was silly, and it was great to watch people panic as three big combat blocks marched forwards
The fireborn are great against infantry, and units of 6-8 stay relevant for ages. (and swedish comp is rediculous on them 8fireborn is a -16, a level 3 mage is a -18!). main problems with them are is that they struggle if outflanked (unstable) or if there is something giving up easy res in the combat, but with a bit of magic support (soulblight is amazing, especially bubbled).
I like your point about the second list, I must admit I just snatched some blunderbuss off of ebay, and they are great fun in a progression campaign we are playing locally (750 points atm, escalating) so they may have gotten shoehorned in!
Not sure where to find the ~300 points for the mage and warmachines :S unless I cut the centaurs back, or out entirely. I am always tempted to go 2x6 fireborn instead of the tauruk+centaurs and see if that gets me the room needed.